Wm. Teacher & Sons

Museum of Transport

William Teacher (1811-1876) worked in a small grocer's shop in Anderston and married the owner's daughter in 1834. He expanded the business with a chain of wine and spirits shops and in the 1850s began to open public houses known as "dram shops" where customers could drink whisky. Teacher's dram shops maintained strict rules forbidding customers from smoking and buying rounds, and anyone "under the influence" could expect to be ejected from the premises by one of the burly Highlanders Teacher liked to employ as barmen. The main attraction of the dram shops (at a time when many pubs were believed to sell adulterated products) was their reputation for providing customers with high quality whisky.

Subsequently Teacher's entered the whisky wholesale and blending business and Teacher's Highland Cream became a leading Scotch whisky brand. In 1898-1899 Teacher's built the Ardmore Distillery in Aberdeenshire.

Reproduced with the permission of Glasgow City Council, Glasgow Museums